Avionics display system for memorization of display configuration to phase of flight pushbuttons
An avionics system having displays with display configurations pilot selected for a phase of flight of an aircraft and reconfigurable for each phase of flight. A multifunction flight display stores and displays the stored phase of flight display configurations for each phase of flight of the aircraft. A cursor control panel connected to the multifunction display for changes from one stored phase of flight display configuration to another stored phase of flight display configuration when the aircraft changes phase of flight. The cursor control panel also is used for reconfiguring the display configuration for each phase of flight. The cursor control panel has phase of flight quick access pushbuttons for selecting a stored phase of flight configuration and for reconfiguring a stored phase of flight configuration into a new phase of flight configuration by selecting the new configuration and pressing a phase of flight quick access pushbutton for a predetermined time to store the new configuration.
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This invention relates to avionics systems, flight displays, and more particularly to a flight display that memorizes a display configuration in accordance with a phase of flight.
Modern aircraft cockpits have a number of displays such as primary flight displays (PFD) and multifunction displays (MFD) showing a wide variety of data to pilots for various phase of flight such as climbing to an altitude, cruising at altitude, and descending. Each phase of flight has with it an associated display configuration displaying a number of data parameters needed by the pilot in various formats on the cockpit displays. When the phase of flight changes, the display configuration also needs to change. In addition, pilots and copilots have their individual preferences as to what they would like to see displayed during a phase of a flight.
Configuring cockpit displays for various phases of flight such as, climbing to an altitude, cruising at an altitude, and descending has always involved a certain workload for a pilot. The pilot is required to select a number of different display formats using various input devices such as keyboards, switches, and joysticks. Attempts have been made in the past to automate setting up display configurations by utilizing a series of preset display configurations for each phase of flight. A pilot would select a phase of flight and the displays would automatically be reconfigured depending on the aircraft flight phase to the preset display configuration. These approaches have not worked very well because the display configurations are preset and could not be reconfigured. The preset phase of flight display configurations do not take into account the desire of pilots to configure displays for phases of flight according to personal preferences.
What is needed is an avionics system having displays that have selectable display configurations for each phase of a flight. The displays need to be configured to display data needed for each phase of flight to suit the needs and preferences of individual pilots. The display configurations for each phase of flight should be easily changed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONAn avionics system having displays with display configurations pilot-selected for a phase of flight of an aircraft and reconfigurable for each phase of flight is disclosed. A multifunction display stores and displays phase of flight display configurations for each phase of flight of the aircraft. A cursor control panel connected to the multifunction display is used for changing from one stored phase of flight display configuration to another stored phase of flight display configuration when selected by the pilot for a phase of flight and for reconfiguring the display configuration for each phase of flight.
The multifunction display has a middle window and a lower window for displaying a pilot-selectable display configurations and a line select key for selecting display formats.
The cursor control panel includes phase of flight quick access pushbuttons for selecting a stored phase of flight configuration and for reconfiguring a stored phase of flight configuration into a new phase of flight configuration. The new phase of flight configuration is selected with controls on the cursor control panel and by pressing a phase of flight quick access pushbutton for a predetermined time to store the new configuration. The cursor control panel has a climb quick access pushbutton for selecting a climb phase of flight display configuration and for reconfiguring the climb phase of flight display configuration. The cursor control panel has a cruise quick access pushbutton for selecting a cruise phase of flight display configuration and for reconfiguring the cruise phase of flight display configuration. The cursor control panel has a descend quick access pushbutton for selecting a descend phase of flight display configuration and for reconfiguring the descend phase of flight display configuration.
The multifunction display displays the climb, cruise, and descend phase of flight configuration displays with pilot-selected display configurations for the middle window that may be a vertical terrain profile, a checklist index, or a flight management system text and for the lower window may be a present position format, a plan format, a datalink format, a chart format, a traffic display format, or a maintenance format.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an avionics system having a display that has selectable display configurations for each phase of flight.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a display that can be configured to display data needed for each phase of flight to suit the needs and preferences of individual pilots.
It is a object of the present invention to provide display configurations for each phase of flight that may be easily changed.
It is an advantage of the present invention to provide a pilot with a number of display configurations to select.
It is an advantage of the present invention to provide windows on an avionics display with different display formats.
It is a feature of the present invention to provide a quickly selectable display format for a phase of flight.
The invention may be more fully understood by reading the following description of the preferred embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the appended drawings wherein:
A typical avionics system 100 that may employ the present invention is shown in exemplary fashion in
The avionics system 100 shown in
Also include in the avionics system 100 is an integrated avionics processing system (IAPS) 115 that performs part of the integration functions to interconnect and manage the various avionics subsystems in the aircraft. Included in the IAPS 115 are such items as flight control computers, flight management computers, and maintenance diagnostic computers. Dual cockpit control units (CDU) 119 are provided for integrated multisensor navigation, flight maintenance and execution, sensor control, MFD 110 map support, communications equipment control, and other controls to the avionics system 100. Dual file server units (FSU) 117 provide processing and mass storage databases for the avionics system 100. The FSUs are used to store terrain data and other databases used by the avionics system 100. Various data buses including Ethernet buses interconnect and transfer data between the components in the avionics system 100 as shown by the interconnect lines in
The cursor control panel (CCP) 145 incorporating the present invention is shown in
A display configuration for the MFD 110 may be stored in memory within the MFD 110 for each of the three pushbuttons 210, 215, and 220. If a pushbutton is pressed and released, a currently stored display configuration for the selected button for a flight phase is displayed. If a button is pressed and held for some period of time such as three seconds for example, a current display configuration is stored in memory in the MFD 110 for future selection or until replaced with a new memorization action for the flight phase for the appropriate button.
A typical MFD 110 front panel 300 is shown in
A middle window 310 in the MFD 110 in
A lower window 320 in
Selecting and storing may be accomplished as follows for the phases of flight with the quick access pushbuttons 210, 215, and 220 on the cursor control panel 145. Shown in
When the aircraft transitions from the climb phase to the cruise phase, the pilot pushes the cruise quick access pushbutton 215 to obtain a typical cruise MFD 110 display format as shown in
When the aircraft starts to descend from the cruise mode, the pilot pushes the descend quick access pushbutton 220 and a preselected and stored descend display configuration is shown on the MFD 110 as shown in exemplary fashion in
The present invention is described above as being implemented on a multifunction display in an avionics system. As described above the multifunction display and a primary flight display may be utilized interchangeably and the present invention may also be used interchangeably on these flight displays. In addition, other types of flight displays for displaying vertical terrain profiles may be used to incorporate the present invention.
It is believed that the avionics display system for memorization of display configuration to phase of flight pushbuttons of the present invention and many of its attendant advantages will be understood by the foregoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangement of the components thereof without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention or without sacrificing all of its material advantages, the form herein before described being merely an explanatory embodiment thereof. It is the intention of the following claims to encompass and include such changes.
Claims
1. A method of selecting, displaying, and reconfiguring display configurations on an avionics display in an avionics system on an aircraft for different phases of flight of the aircraft comprising the steps of:
- selecting a prestored climb display configuration for display on the avionics display with a climb quick access pushbutton on a cursor control panel when the aircraft is in a climb phase of flight;
- reconfiguring the prestored climb display configuration into a new climb display configuration with controls on the cursor control panel and on the avionics display;
- pressing and holding the climb quick access pushbutton for a period of time to store the new climb display configuration;
- selecting a prestored cruise display configuration for display on the avionics display with a cruise quick access pushbutton on the cursor control panel when the aircraft changes to a cruise phase of flight; and
- selecting a prestored descend display configuration for display on the avionics display with a descend quick access pushbutton on the cursor control panel when the aircraft changes to a descend phase of flight.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:
- reconfiguring the prestored cruise display configuration into a new cruise display configuration with controls on the cursor control panel and the avionics display; and
- pressing the cruise quick access pushbutton for a period of time to store the new cruise display configuration.
3. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:
- reconfiguring the prestored descend display configuration into a new descend display configuration with controls on the cursor control panel and the avionics display; and
- pressing the descend quick access pushbutton for a period of time to store the new descend display configuration.
4. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of selecting the new climb display configuration on the avionics display with the climb quick access pushbutton on the cursor control panel.
5. A method of selecting, displaying, and reconfiguring display configurations on an avionics display in an avionics system on an aircraft for different phases of flight of the aircraft comprising the steps of:
- selecting prestored display configurations for display on the avionics display with quick access pushbuttons on a cursor control panel in accordance with the aircraft phase of flight;
- reconfiguring the prestored display configurations into new display configurations with controls on the cursor control panel and the avionics display;
- pressing and holding quick access pushbuttons for a period of time to store the new display configurations, wherein the quick access pushbuttons include a climb quick access pushbutton, a cruise quick access pushbutton, and a descend quick access pushbutton to store a respective new prestored climb display configuration, cruise display configuration and descend display configuration by pressing and holding the respective quick access button for the period of time;
- selecting the prestored cruise display configuration for display on the avionics display with the cruise quick access pushbutton on the cursor control panel when the aircraft changes to a cruise phase of flight; and
- selecting the prestored descend display configuration for display on the avionics display with the descend quick access pushbutton on the cursor control panel when the aircraft changes to a descend phase of flight.
6. The method of claim 5 for selecting, displaying, and reconfiguring avionics display configurations in an avionics system wherein the step of selecting prestored display configurations on the avionics display with the quick access pushbuttons further comprising the steps of:
- selecting the prestored climb display configuration for display on the avionics display with the climb quick access pushbutton on the cursor control panel when the aircraft is in a climb phase of flight.
7. The method of claim 6 wherein each of the steps of selecting the climb phase of flight configuration, the cruise phase of flight configuration, and descend phase of flight configuration comprises selecting a middle window display configuration from the group consisting of a checklist index, a flight management system text, and a vertical terrain profile and selecting a lower window display configuration from the group consisting of a present position, plan, datalink, charts, traffic, and maintenance formats.
8. An avionics system having displays with display configurations pilot-selected for a phase of flight of an aircraft and reconfigurable for each phase of flight comprising:
- a flight display for storing and displaying stored phase of flight display configurations for each phase of flight of the aircraft; and
- a cursor control panel connected to the flight display for changing from one stored phase of flight display configuration to another stored phase of flight display configuration when selected by the pilot for a phase of flight and for reconfiguring the display configuration for each phase of flight, wherein the panel includes quick access pushbuttons including a climb quick access pushbutton to store a new prestored climb display configuration by pressing and holding the climb quick access pushbutton for a period of time, wherein the quick access pushbuttons include a cruise quick access pushbutton, and a descend quick access pushbutton, wherein a prestored cruise display configuration can be selected for display with the cruise quick access pushbutton when the aircraft changes to a cruise phase of flight, and a prestored descend display configuration can be selected for display with the descend quick access pushbutton when the aircraft changes to a descend phase of flight.
9. The avionics system of claim 8 wherein the flight display further comprises:
- a middle window for displaying a pilot-selectable display configuration;
- a lower window for displaying a pilot-selectable display configuration; and
- line select keys for selecting the middle window and lower window display configuration.
10. The avionics system of claim 9 wherein the quick access pushbuttons are flight phase pushbuttons for selecting a stored phase of flight configuration and for reconfiguring a stored phase of flight configuration into a new phase of flight configuration by selecting the new configuration with controls on the cursor control panel and pressing and holding one of the quick access pushbuttons for a predetermined time to store the new configuration.
11. The avionics system of claim 10 wherein the cursor control panel further comprises:
- the climb quick access pushbutton for selecting a climb phase of flight display configuration and for reconfiguring the climb phase of flight display configuration;
- the cruise quick access pushbutton for selecting a cruise phase of flight display configuration and for reconfiguring the cruise phase of flight display configuration; and
- the descend quick access pushbutton for selecting a descend phase of flight display configuration and for reconfiguring the descend phase of flight display configuration.
12. The avionics system of claim 11 wherein the climb phase of flight configuration displays a pilot-selected display configuration for the middle window from the group consisting of a vertical terrain profile, a checklist index, and a flight management system text and for the lower window from the group consisting of a present position, a plan, a datalink, a chart, a traffic, and a maintenance format.
13. The avionics system of claim 11 wherein the cruise phase of flight configuration displays a pilot-selected display configuration for the middle window from the group consisting of a vertical terrain profile, a checklist index, and a flight management system text and for the lower window from the group consisting of a present position, a plan, a datalink, a chart, a traffic, and a maintenance format.
14. The avionics system of claim 11 wherein the descend phase of flight configuration displays a pilot-selected display configuration for the middle window from the group consisting of a vertical terrain profile, a checklist index, and a flight management system text and for the lower window from the group consisting of a present position, a plan, a datalink, a chart, a traffic, and a maintenance format.
Type: Grant
Filed: Jan 23, 2002
Date of Patent: Mar 13, 2007
Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc. (Cedar Rapids, IA)
Inventors: Sarah Barber (Robins, IA), Stephen R. Johnson (Cedar Rapids, IA)
Primary Examiner: Ba Muynh
Assistant Examiner: Truc T. Chuong
Attorney: Nathan O. Jensen
Application Number: 10/055,258
International Classification: G06F 3/00 (20060101); G06F 7/00 (20060101); G06F 7/70 (20060101);